Kenya: International Observers Satisfied With Elections

In Kenya, the electoral commission is expected to give the winner of the presidential election on Friday 11 August at midday. The IEBC is still comparing its electronic results, accessible to everyone on the Internet, to the paper reports sent to Nairobi. In all likelihood, outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta is expected to win in the first round with a score of points ahead of Raila Odinga. The opponent’s camp rejected the figures of the electoral commission. As for international election observers, they consider that the election was held without “massive fraud”.

Even though opposition opponent Raila Odinga has denounced “massive” frauds, the European Union said on Thursday it did not detect any signs of ” local or national manipulation ” during the elections on Tuesday 8 August 2017. Marietje Schaake, President of the European Mission, explained that ” the EU has seen the security forces deployed correctly and the electoral agents are present and able to work freely. Voting and counting were well done and transparent. ” She explained that the process of counting the ballots would be the subject of a subsequent report. She ” hopes that no matter what the future, no matter what detailed findings will be made, Kenyans will benefit from the benefits of”

She also called on political leaders to take responsibility:

“An election should never be a matter of life or death. We appeal to all candidates to follow the legal procedure, she said. If there are objections, send them to the electoral commission or appeal to the courts. We ask everyone to take responsibility and show leadership. The main candidates are very much listened to by their supporters. And we ask them to use this to advocate calm, restraint. I believe that my only response to violence is to condemn it.

I am a politician myself, “she said. I lost an election. Was this the best time of my career? Absolutely not. But this is the risk to take when you are a candidate. So it is important to accept defeat gracefully, to speak to his supporters, and instead to excite people, to think about the future. There are still scars from the past, but there has been a lot of effort to prevent conflicts, and I think they were not made for nothing. So I think everyone knows that everyone has a role to play, especially the leaders, who are so much listened to. ”

For his part, former US Secretary of State John Kerry, who chaired the Carter Center’s observation mission, said the accounting system was reliable. He said that Kenya had even made ” a remarkable demonstration of its democracy “.